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Ken Burns
Directing

Ken Burns
Known For
Directing
Birthday
1953-07-29,Brooklyn, New York, USA
Gender
Male
Biography
Ken Burns (born 1953) is a highly celebrated American documentarian who gradually amassed a considerable reputation and a devoted audience with a series of reassuringly traditional meditations on Americana. Burns' works are treasure troves of archival materials; he skillfully utilizes period music and footage, photographs, periodicals and ordinary people's correspondence, the latter often movingly read by seasoned professional actors in a deliberate attempt to get away from a "Great Man" approach to history. Like most non-fiction filmmakers, Burns wears many hats on his projects, often serving as writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing. He achieved his apotheosis with The Civil War (1990), a phenomenally popular 11-hour documentary that won two Emmys and broke all previous ratings records for public TV. The series' companion coffee table book--priced at a hefty $50--sold more than 700,000 copies. The audio version, narrated by Burns, was also a major best-seller. In the final accounting, "The Civil War" became the first documentary to gross over $100 million. Not surprisingly, it has become perennial fund-raising programming for public TV stations around the country. Burns arrived upon the scene with the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a nostalgic chronicle of the construction of the fabled edifice. The film was more widely seen when rebroadcast on PBS the following year. Though Burns has made other nonfiction films for theatrical release, notably an acclaimed and ambiguous portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long (1985), PBS would prove to be his true home. He cast a probing eye on such American subjects as The Statue of Liberty (1985), The Congress (1988) (PBS), painter Thomas Hart Benton (1988) (PBS) and early radio with Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (PBS). Burns returned to long-form documentary with his most ambitious project to date, an 18-hour history of Baseball (1994), which aired on PBS in the fall of 1994. He approached the national pastime as a template for understanding changes in modern American society. Ironically, this was the only baseball on the air at the time, as the players and owners were embroiled in a bitter strike.

Filmography

A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939

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A Hall for Heroes: The Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction of 1939
2010-01-24

The Unmaking of a College

8

The Unmaking of a College
2022-02-11

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself

7.7

Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
2012-10-03

Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories

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Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories
2024-09-04

OETA's On The Record: Ken Burns

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OETA's On The Record: Ken Burns
2014-09-15

Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation

6.8

Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens - A Life in Animation
2000-11-08

Ken Burns: Here & There

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Ken Burns: Here & There
2020-11-28

Here For A Good Time

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Here For A Good Time
2020-05-01

6.3

Very Ralph
2019-11-12

The Tony Danza Show

6.1

The Tony Danza Show
2004-09-13

6.4

The Daily Show
1996-07-22

5.5

Today
1952-01-14

9

This Week
1981-11-15

Finding Your Roots

6.2

Finding Your Roots
2012-03-24

6.7

60 Minutes
1968-09-24

The Colbert Report

6.798

The Colbert Report
2005-10-17

Late Night with Conan O'Brien

7.1

Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993-09-13

8.067

Muhammad Ali
2021-09-19

The Tim McCarver Show

5

The Tim McCarver Show
2005-02-06

Back on the Record with Bob Costas

6

Back on the Record with Bob Costas
2021-07-30

The Mindy Project

6.2

The Mindy Project
2012-09-25

MLB: Baseball's Seasons

0

MLB: Baseball's Seasons
2009-01-07

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

6.5

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015-09-08

8.015

The Simpsons
1989-12-17

CNN Special Report

6.7

CNN Special Report
1980-04-19

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

7.4

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962-10-01

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

5.843

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014-02-17

7.1

In the Know
2024-01-25

The U.S. and the Holocaust

8.6

The U.S. and the Holocaust
2022-09-18

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

6.5

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2015-09-08

7.4

Baseball
1994-09-18

Craft in America

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Craft in America
2007-04-18

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

7.5

Firing Line with Margaret Hoover
2018-06-22